Washism

Went shopping at the reopened MARUI department store in shinjuku today.
J saw it on tv and decided it might cheer me up a little cos it was featured as a girls relaxing place with 8 stories of clothes and homemaking shops, plus cafes with menus specially designed for ladies.
Dined at Cookcoop cafe which has a famous bookcafe in uptown Aoyama, and was very refreshed by the experience. it was like dining in a mini resort. And the food was in small portions(meant for ladies) but very tasty. I had a minestrone soup set with salad with grainy bread & herb butter, whil J had the meat sauce pie, which left him craving for more. Poor J was still quite hungry after lunch. The pie was so very tiny and i think definitely isnt sufficient for a standard guys lunch.
Well, after all that walking, i was very hungry too when we came home, so as agreed on the train, i decided to make a curry with a huge amount of vegetables.

Wafu curry with spring vegetables

Why i call it wafu (japanese style), is because miso was used for the curry sauce.

Since i had some time on hand, decided to make my own curry sauce, that is, without the use of curry roux.

Curry is generally regarded as a high calorie food here because of the sugar content and oil used.

But this one has almost no oil and really no sugar added at all.

Ingredients

1/2 a large onion (roughly chopped)

1 clove garlic (minced)

1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger

1 large tomato

150g groung lean beef

1 large eggplant

1/2 a zucchini

1 pack shimeji mushrooms

3 tbs curry powder (i use one that has cumin, coriander and cardomon mixed into it)

2 tbs miso

3 tbs milk

Mix garlic and ginger with the ground beef and leave to marinate while preparing other ingredients.

In a large pan, fry the onions, mushrooms, eggplant & zucchini in a 1/2 tablespoon of oil till fragrant. Sprinkle salt & pepper.

Add 1 tbs of sake (or white winte), curry powder and stir fry.

Push aside the vegetables, fry the beef in an open area of the pan till fragrant, then toss together with the vegetables. At this point, add some boiled mixed beans if you like.

Add 1 tsp of dashi granules with 1 cup water, simmer on low heat for 15 minutes.

Stir in the miso melted in 1 tbs of water together with a sprinkle of curry powder,

Add the milk, stir in a few strips of preboiled snow peas, mix in some pizza cheese, and serve with hot rice.

Top with more beans and egg bits for colour.

Made extra curry to make more karepan tmr =)